{"id":40990,"date":"2022-11-02T14:45:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T19:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=40990"},"modified":"2022-11-04T22:37:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T03:37:19","slug":"ben-rhodes-takes-an-old-fashioned-approach-to-possible-second-truck-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/02\/ben-rhodes-takes-an-old-fashioned-approach-to-possible-second-truck-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Rhodes takes an \u201cOld Fashioned\u201d approach to possible second Truck title"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

PHOENIX, Ariz. \u2013 Ben Rhodes is superstitious about being in the same room as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series trophy.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ben Rhodes, driver of the #99 Kubota Toyota, speaks to the media during the NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway on November 03, 2022 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Kentuckian has an Old Fashioned named after him in The Barn at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Rhodes mentioned both Seneca and Pythagoras in his Championship 4 Media Day interview at the Phoenix Convention Center.<\/p>\n

And\u2014oh, yes\u2014he\u2019s the defending series champion\u2014without much credit in the eyes of handicappers for winning the title last year.<\/p>\n

Among the Championship 4 drivers, Rhodes is the clear long shot. First-time qualifier Chandler Smith is the oddsmakers\u2019 favorite, having won the 2021 season finale as Rhodes was wrapping up the championship with a third-place run.<\/p>\n

Rhodes doesn\u2019t mind that the bookies aren\u2019t sanguine about his chances. With a sixth-place finish on Oct. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he made the Championship 4 by one point over Stewart Friesen.<\/p>\n

But Rhodes feels the trial by fire might help him\u2014hence, the quote from the Roman philosopher Seneca.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this is a quote from Seneca, and I\u2019m going to paraphrase a little bit, but \u2018The road to greatness is always rough,\u2019\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cIt feels like every season in the Playoffs\u2014I can only think of one time that we were able to just kind of coast through to the next round.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, it\u2019s fighting tooth-and-nail just to get ourselves into that spot to transfer. Here\u2019s the tiebreaker. Here\u2019s one point. Here\u2019s four points. It\u2019s not easy to do that. It\u2019s very easy to make mistakes in high-pressure situations. So, I think the fact that we had to be forged in fire has already given us a little bit of an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhodes acknowledges that ThorSport Racing teammate Ty Majeski has momentum on his side, having won two of the last three races. But Rhodes hasn\u2019t lost his hunger for a second championship. Teammate Matt Crafton is the only driver in series history to win back-to-back titles, a feat he accomplished in 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Hence, the Pythagoras reference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there\u2019s a cup called the Pythagoras Cup,\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cWhen the Cup gets full, it drains itself back out. That\u2019s kind of what the championship felt like last year. We won it\u2014I\u2019ve never experienced such happiness and true emotion in racing before. It felt like it was so long to get to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I feel like I can\u2019t live without it. My cup\u2019s empty again. I\u2019ve got to fill it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhodes, who was in his cups for last year\u2019s post-race press conference, promised another memorable celebration if he wins a second title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Ben Rhodes Old Fashioneds now served at The Barn,\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how they\u2019re concocting them, because I made mine my way. Hopefully, they\u2018re following that recipe. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the whole story. I went out there last year, and they didn\u2019t have an Old Fashioned. I\u2019m from Kentucky\u2014ain\u2019t no bourbon. So, they\u2019ve got it now. Now I just have to perform\u2014150 laps to make it to The Barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re going to see something epic.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service PHOENIX, Ariz. \u2013 Ben Rhodes is superstitious about being in the same room as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series trophy. The Kentuckian has an Old Fashioned named after him in The Barn at Phoenix Raceway. Rhodes mentioned both Seneca and Pythagoras in his Championship 4 Media Day interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":40996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[498,16,395],"class_list":["post-40990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-ben-rhodes","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-1438736217-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aF8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40990"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41013,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40990\/revisions\/41013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}